Skagway embraced us in a cold, misty embrace at 7:00 am. We hit the town as soon as we were able; a 9:30 appointment to travel to Haines in order to do some rafting down the Chilkat River through the Chilkat Eagle Preserve loomed over us.

After a decent cup of coffee and breakfast sandwich at a local coffee shop it was time to embark on the bus-to-ferry-to-bus-to-raft excursion. Rain not only threatened the entire journey to Haines, it backed up the threat with action on the ferry ride out from Skagway south to Haines. Passing waterfall after waterfall while the rain beat on the windows was quite mesmerizing – until our guide told us we were cruising over a fault line – Alaska is rife with them.

Once in Haines we boarded a bus out to Chilkat Lake and then rafted down the Chilkat River under clearing skies spotting eagles at every turn – singles and nesting pairs. After about 2 hours we beached, had a great lunch, passable mochas (great, considering they were served riverside) and boarded the bus back to Haines and back to Skagway. I can’t recommend the tour enough. The staff was great – as was the scenery of course. Tom Lang, our guide is a fellow author and had a great sense of humor and raport with the adults as well as our two sons. In just the time of the bus ride from Haines, my youngest whispered to me “I want to be in his boat.”

So enjoy the photos. I’ll be posting Seattle, Juneau, Ketchikan, and Prince Rupert (as well as shots from on board the Norwegian Star) in the coming days.